Charcoal canister discontinued

[88260e]

So I’m looking to replace my charcoal canister in my 03 W210 wagon, and the part is discontinued! Has anyone had success using a different part number and making it work?

[oldsinner111]

can you open it, and replace activated charcoal yourself? I'd do that .

[Zulfiqar]

Originally Posted by 88260e

So I’m looking to replace my charcoal canister in my 03 W210 wagon, and the part is discontinued! Has anyone had success using a different part number and making it work?

charcoal canisters work on the same principles on all cars. If yours is literally flooded with fuel and has damaged the coal pellets then you can try to refill it (very difficult) or try to retrofit something else like from a GM or Ford product.

Before any of that, its a good idea to smoke test the system to see if its not just an old hose leaking.

[88260e]

Already smoke tested changed everything else this is the last thing.

[Zulfiqar]

use some WD40 in the purge valve, it may free it up, I had to do that on my old W210 too, Benz have been using the same kind of valve forever and a squirt of WD40 helps it when it becomes lazy.

a sticky/lazy purge valve sets that code too.

[88260e]

Valve is new

[lsmalley]

I just recently took my charcoal canister out because I noticed I smelled weird fumes by the front wheel well when the car ran for a long period. I don't know which fixed the issue, but what I did was open the canister up and dump the pellets into a pan of hot water and soak them for 30 minutes. Then I drained them and dried them using a propane torch directly on the pellets. I put them back in the canister added a open cell filter inside to keep the pellets from clogging up the vacuum lines (I noticed that there was pellets blocking the canister line opening). I sealed the canister back up with a thin line of clear silicone on the edges then I used butyl backed aluminum flashing tape on the outer edges. No more fumes. I am unsure if the issue was just to unclog the end or not, the MB manual states the charcoal is self regenerating and I don't particular believe that charcoal being used to absorb fumes in a closed loop system goes bad so soaking the pellets may not be necessary.

[raymond~]

you can also consider buying loose charcoal e.g. aquariums, filters and recharging the
aged canister. I've done similar with the MB cabin charcoal filter with great success...
and at great cost savings.